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21 December 2010

Death: [Cheap] Food For Thought

"It's not funny, Dean, to watch you died at least 105 times and I am not able to reap... not once!"

"I apologize for that."

I had an epiphany after watching Appointment in Samarra. The theme of unnatural events causing a disruption to the balance of the universe got me thinking about the storyarc. I thought instead of writing an episode review, I am going to share with you my theory on Death and his role on the show.

Supernatural's take on Death is a very interesting one. The writers have given Death a personality. He is not a hooded mysterious scary old man. In fact he is not scary at all. He has one job to do, and one job only. If God is at the starting point of human lives, then Death is on the other end of our lives, waiting to collect our souls when our time is up. It's a simple equation. There shouldn't be any complication. It is like a waterfall model -- you born, you live, you die. It is a natural progression. God and Death book-end our lives.

You are not supposed to cheat Death. But what if something happens to you? What if there is some sort of intervention and you no longer live as a human?

In the event of a supernatural situation occurred, say, when a vampire turned a human into one of their kind as depicted in Dead Man's Blood or Live Free or Twi-Hard, this normal human being became immortal. One less 'human soul' for Death to collect. And according to the Alpha in Live Free or Twi-Hard, when their kind died, they'd go to Purgatory.

Another example. In All Dogs Go to Heaven, skinwalkers infiltrated into ordinary families. On the Alpha's signal, they would turn their human families into their skinwalkers simultaneously. This would be the fastest way to build an army. Many normal human lives would be altered, possibly without their souls intact after they're turned.Death's list is just getting shorter.

Let's take a look at Dean and Sam. How many times have they died and be brought back to life by either demons, angels or God? As a result of this, I believe Death is getting a bit frustrated. While we think it's funny to watch Dean died like at least 105 times in an episode alone, may be Death doesn't find it funny at all.

The numbers of lives by God created should equal to the numbers of souls collected by Death. What happen if it doesn't equate? What's Death's view on it? If I am Death, I will be saying: "Hang on a second here, I'm supposed to take X number of souls, you supernatural creatures caused all these disruptions and ruined my job!' Death can't be out of job, right? How many human souls have Death lost due to any kind of supernatural intervention?

As we have seen in season 6 so far, things are getting bit out of hand. Why are the Alphas of different supernatural kinds so desperate for building their armies fast? Why are monsters acting off-pattern? They are fighting for domination and survival.

Do monsters have souls? I guess not, that's why they are called monsters, right? And their kind only have one place to go after they die -- Purgatory. I think Death is only limited to reap human souls, he doesn't have the ability to reap monsters simply because they are soulless.

My theory is that Death has an important part to play in the season half of season 6. I think he is attempting to get rid of the existence of all supernatural creatures on earth. He is going to end this disruption to the balance of the universe. He wants things to return to balance.

How is Dean & Sam going to play a role in this scheme of things? Dean and Sam are great hunters, they are valuable assets. If Death's power is limited to human souls, then he needs good hunters like Dean and Sam to eliminate monsters and helped maintaining the natural order. Unlike the angel Balthazar who has his own agenda and clearly doing something dodgy, Death's intention is clear. Death's purpose is simple -- to reap human souls.

Death wants Dean to keep digging about this soul thing. He wants Dean to discover something himself, whatever they might be. He wants Dean to understand something. Death is teaching Dean a lesson. This lesson starts with retrieving Sam's soul from hell. Death warns Dean about the success rate of putting a wall in Sam's mind. Once Sam starts scratching, he will break and he will die. And when Sam dies (again), I think this will be the end of the series. Because I think Death will have the balance returns by then, he will demonstrate this natural order to Dean by taking Sam with him for good. Dean and Sam must learn when you're dead, you should stay dead. When you are human, you should die human.

I am sure there are a lot of holes in my theory. Let me know what you think and how do you see the role of Death in the rest of the season. I just think that he is not a support act and after watching Appointment in Samarra, I am convinced he has a very important role to play.

Appointment in Samarra was a great great episode! It was written by Sera Gamble and Robert Singer, directed by Mark Rohl.

Death: You and your brother keep coming back. You're an affront to the balance of the universe, and you cause disruption on a global scale.

Dean: I apologize for that.

Death: But you have use. Right now you're digging at something, intrepid detective. I want you to keep digging, Dean.

2 comments:

Interesting theory Tiny and I seriously hope you are incorrect! I can't stand the thought of one brother dying and one living. It's all for one and one for all as far as I'm concerned, they both live or they both die. I agree with you in that the balance has been knocked out of whack. Something about the boys stopping the Apocalypse has thrown the Universe off kilter and I definitely agree that Death wants that balance restored. His existence is about order and fate and both are now dust in the wind! Death is a powerful being and he's pissed that someone or something is playing with his gig by stealing HIS souls. That is messing with the essence of his existence, his reason for his being and by returning that balance, the 1:1 ratio if you will, balance will be restored to the Universe as a whole. I’m not sure he's interested in using the brother's lives to restore that balance. Their back and forth with the after-life, in reality, was not their doing. They were, even before they knew it, the pawns of Heaven and Hell. Whether they did deals or not, I don't believe they would have been allowed to die as they were needed for that final battle on earth. The fact that they screwed destiny right in the face and did it their own way, stopping the pre-destined end game, is what I believe set in motion the chaos that the Supernatural world is now dealing with. This is not the future we were supposed to have. Dean was the first to deny the Reaper, he should have gone with Tessa 5 years back. It was John's deal to save him that started the world down this dangerous path, but once again, how do we not know that that too was not destined? The Winchesters have been manipulated from the get go. Every choice brought the brothers to that field for the final face off between Lucifer and Michael, so how can we be sure that any of their choices were ever truly theirs? And if that is the case, how can they be blamed? How can any of us be sure that the choices we make that we think change the course of our lives are not the pre-destined choices that fate already had laid out for us? Maybe this whole free-will thing is just an illusion and God’s sitting up in Heaven chucking at us all! Sorry, went deep, to Yemin! I feel if Death were to take anyone to right the wrongs of the past it would have to be Dean as he was first to face death and ‘cheat Death’, but I don’t think he will, at least not yet! I totally agree with you in that Death will be back and has an important roll to play, whether it's finally reaping the Winchesters or just pushing them into figuring out this puzzle so that Death can go back to doing his job unhindered, I really have no clue. I also agree that this is all part of a lesson, that the brothers are being taught the importance of the natural order, the value of life, particularly their own and the gravity of their actions, that there are consequences to their decisions outside of their own circle. But they are human afterall, humans tend to do as they please and rarely make decisions for the greater good. We make decisions on what is important to our own universe, protecting those that we love, making sure that the people we love are OK. That is really all the brothers have ever done, protected and looked out for each other and I don’t think they should be punished for that. That is how we were created, if Death takes issue with that he should have a word to his pal God! I have a very strong feeling that the boys will die when Supernatural finally reaches the end of The Road So Far, but I really hope if this is the case, they die together, fighting the good fight....that’s if they must die at all! Nice theory Tiny, I am going to ponder on it more! –AmyP.S. Lengthy comment was lengthy!